Hi all, there was one post and it didnt have much info in it about torque wrenches. Im thinking its time for me to get one, I was wondering if there is one that can handle the whole bike including the Campy crankset bolt torque. I would like to get some advice from what you guys recommend, Im not a bike shop, and it will be used once in a while. I dont want to spend couple hundred, I want money left over for other bike stuff=)please advice friends

I agree with Causidicus except for the recommendation to buy expensive torque wrenches. Inexpensive beam type wrenches have sufficient accuracy and repeatability for bicycle use where the correct torque value is generally a fairly wide range.

Complicated question.I have mentioned before that I work in a place that has very stringent calibration program, and I have access to a lot of torque wrenches. But they actually rarely go out of calibration, and even the cheap ones seem to hold up pretty accurately.So a lot of the question is simply how important is it to be accurate and how much are you willing to pay to be sure you are accurate.

As a practical matter, I do a lot of my home torquing with three tools: the Ritchey torque key, the Park TW-5 torque wrench, and a Craftsman 1/2" "Dr. Beam" torque wrench. But I have never had any of them recalibrated after purchase.

The same question comes up over the accuracy of pressure gages. So I have two "expensive" pressure gages and I also went out and bought about half a dozen of the cheapest gages I could find. But in direct comparison tests, all gages read the same pressure to within the ability of my eyes to read the gage.

So higher quality wrenches and gages probably hold up longer, and give greater piece of mind, but it would be arguable whether they actually give any more accurate results most of the time.

It’s not enough just to claim having the lowest prices around. A Scion is a lot cheaper than a Lexus, but, well… Now on the other hand, if you can claim lowest price AND the same quality (or better) than the high-priced brands, now we got ourselves a ball game.

In the April 2013 issue of Car Craft, in the Hands On section, I stumbled across an article entitled, “Testing Torque Wrenches”, by Jeff Smith. The gist of it was to compare the performance of 1/2-inch drive click torque wrenches from Craftsman ($240), Snap-on ($323) and the Pittsburgh model (#239 – $19.99) from Harbor Freight.

“Then we discovered a digital torque adapter sold by Harbor Freight (#68283). This small unit fits in between a standard 1/2-inch drive breaker bar and the socket, and using a digital strain gauge, it converts the torque applied through the adapter into a digital readout. At a typical Harbor Freight price of $39.99, we decided to include it in our test. We frankly didn’t expect this little unit to be very accurate. But the testing proved otherwise.”

After running the torque adapter through five consecutive applications of 70-lb.-ft. of torque, the average came out to be an “amazing 70.1 lb.-ft. In fact, when they tested it against a Snap-On digital torque wrench “costing far more,” the readings from the two tools were generally within 0.20 lb-ft.

As for the drive click torque wrench…

“… we also tested Harbor Freight’s 1/2-inch clicker torque wrench, and it was also very close. It also has a range of 20 to 150 lb-ft and a lifetime warranty. Accuracy after five consecutive tests at 70 lb-ft ranged from 68.8 lb-ft (-1.2) to 70.3 (+0.3), with an average error of 0.30 ft-lb over five tests. It doesn’t get much better than that for a mechanical torque wrench.”

Bottom line: You don’t have to pay an arm and a leg to get precision performance– and with your 20% Off Coupon, you can have the drive click torque wrench for just $16! For so much less than the competition, Harbor Freight’s 1/2-inch drive click torque wrench is the clear winner!http://blog.harborfreight.com/car-craft ... ue-wrench/

I bought a Harbor Fright torque wrench after reading a similar article in Grassroots Motorsports.

I don't like the 0-150 ft-lb 1/2 in drive one as much as my craftsman 0-80 ft/lb clicker wrench because the gradations are close together and are difficult to see. (also a 0-80 ft lb wrench put the typical bike use for BBs etc right in the middle of the range where the wrench is the most accurate). So I use it for automotive stuff and keep the Craftsman for large fasteners on bikes. For small ones I have a 5mn TorqueKey and a small Park beam type.

Three is what I have. One Park 0 to 60 inch pounds. A Craftsman 25 to 250 inch pounds and a Harbor Freight Tool 25 to 300 ft pounds. Sorry about the US measurement but I do live in the US and do think metrically with everything bicycle but still need to use the conversion tables with torque wrenches.

Are you using the 2 to 8Nm version? Is it easy to get 7 or 8Nm with a screwdriver?

My advice to the OP is to first of all make up a list of all the torque specs for your bike. The max you will find on a modern bike is typically about 50Nm, which means you need at least two - one for lower values, one for axle bolts, cassette lockrings and BB cups.

+1 on the Harbor Freight mechanical torque wrenches. I have used their (Pittsburgh brand) 1/2" drive model for my car for years, and just recently bought their 1/4" drive (20-200 in-lbs range) model for my bike. It was something like $20 with a coupon I had...crazy good deal.

and a mid range wrench for the bigger items like BB cups, UT Hirth bolts, cassette lockrings and pedals

Pedals? I never do these more than a smidge over finger tight and certainly wouldn't use a torque-wrench to determine tightness. Can't see why you'd want to torque these to any high values (unless you want to try breaking the crank:threaded insert interface on carbon cranks )

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